Kase AF 85mm F1.4 Review

The company Kase has long been known as a filter maker, with a wide variety of filters and filter systems. But they have just released their first lens, and it is a surprisingly ambitious one. The Kase AF 85mm F1.4 is a full frame 85mm F1.4 lens complete with a wide variety of unique features, a surprisingly compact size, and a nicely strong performance. Is Kase going to be the most recent Chinese company to really disrupt the lens market? Find out more in either the video review below or by reading on in the text review.

https://youtu.be/mnSUFLT0e08

Thanks to Kase for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV and the Sony Alpha 1. You can find the listing for the AF 85mm F1.4 FE here.

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AI SUMMARY: The Kase AF 85mm F1.4 lens is an impressive first effort from a company primarily known for filter design, offering unique filter compatibility and compactness while delivering strong performance. It features innovative magnetic filter integration, a well-built metal body, and versatile functions like customizable focus points and firmware updates via USB-C, adding to its appeal. Although its autofocus may be slightly slower than some competitors, it remains accurate, quiet, and suitable for portrait and general photography, with excellent optical qualities such as balanced sharpness, contrast, and creamy bokeh. Priced competitively at around $738 USD, the lens stands out for its rendering, build quality, and filter-friendly design, making it a compelling option among high-end 85mm F1.4 lenses.

Strengths:

Innovative magnetic filter system integrated into the lens design
Compact, well-built, and weather-sealed construction
Excellent optical rendering with smooth bokeh and balanced contrast
Versatile features like customizable focus points and firmware updates via USB-C

Weaknesses:

Autofocus speed is slower compared to some competitors
Slightly decentered aperture blades affecting shape and contrast at F1.4
Minimal flare control with some light leak issues
Lack of an aperture lock feature which could improve handling in certain shooting conditions

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Kase’s background in filter design is shown in some of the unique features of this lens, which should prove to be the most filter friendly lens that I’ve ever tested. It’s been nearly six years ago that I reviewed my first magnetic filter system, and at that point you needed to screw in a magnetic filter adapter onto the front threads of the lens, after which you could quickly hot swap filters magnetically. Kase has incorporated a magnetic rotating ring right into the lens design, allowing you to skip the adapter and just drop magnetic filters right onto the lens. And, while they included a standard UV/Protection magnetic filter in my package, it just so happened that the Freewell CPL (circular polarizing) filter that I reviewed years ago was in a 72mm filter size, so I dropped it on there and found that it worked perfectly as well. Sweet!

What’s more, they are also including their “Magic Clip In Filter” for Sony buyers as a free gift. This appears to be an ND4 filter, and is designed to drop in right in front of the sensor. They even include a little “guitar pick” designed to allow you to easily lift the filter out.

All of this is a great, as it allows potential buyers more control over the light, potentially allowing for more effective flash sync, proper shutter speeds for video, etc…

There have been a number of new 85mm F1.4 lenses released for Sony, most recently including the Viltrox PRO 85mm F1.4 and the Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4. In many ways this new Kase 85mm most reminds me of the Aurora, though Kase has managed to bring a more compelling package with both better features and better performance. Let’s explore why that is…

Kase 85mm F1.4 Build and Handling

I really like Viltrox’s recent PRO 85mm F1.4, but there’s no question that its a bigger lens. Kase has done a really great job with managing the size of the 85mm F1.4, as it is both feature rich while also being nice and compact.

What’s more, the Kase 85mm F1.4 manages to stay compact even when the lens hood is used, something that diminishes the compact nature of the Sigma 85mm F1.4:

The diameter is 82mm (3.24″) and the length is 99mm (3.89″). That makes it very similar in size to the Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II. It weighs in at 580g (20.45oz), making it a little lighter than the Sigma 85mm F1.4 but heavier than than the Samyang (509g) or the Sirui Aurora (540g).

Overall my impression is that the lens is compact but very well made. It has a reassuring density and a premium feel. I think the design language is nice and clean, though it doesn’t break any new ground.

There is a weather sealing gasket at the lens mount, though I haven’t yet seen a cutout diagram showing the position of other seals. I suspect there are other seals as that has become the standard for this class of lens, and Kase does claim that it is sealed against dust and moisture.

The body of the lens is molded and made of metal alloys. There is a lightly flocked finish on the barrel that is offset by glossier sections on areas like the aperture ring and near the lens mount. The ribbed textures of the aperture ring is reminiscent of a Sigma ART lens, and I would say that Sigma ART lenses represent a fair standard for the level of build quality.

The hood is more compact than competing lenses. The quality feels good, with thicker plastics, a flocked finish that matches the lens barrel, and good precision in the bayonet mount. It clicks into place nicely, though there is no lock.

As mentioned previously, the front filter thread is 72mm, which matches the Samyang and is a bit smaller than the 77mm on lenses like the Viltrox, Sigma, or Sony GM lenses.

The headline here is the very clever implementation of the magnetic filter mount. A closer look reveals that the “magnetic inlaid ring” not only allows for a nice attachment of filters but also has the ability to rotate, allowing you to rotate Vari-ND or CP-L filters without worrying about disrupting the magnetic connection.

The only downside of this will be for those of you with a bit of OCD – this means that the text on the facade of the lens will not always look nicely straight up and down as shown here. It could be rotated to any position.

As noted, I was able to use both the included filter from Kase along with an older Freewell filter that I already owned. The magnetic connection on the Kase filter was definitely stronger, though I was still able to use the Freewell filter without issue.

If you want other Kase magnetic filter options (I’m not a fan of using UV/Protection filters, myself), you can check out their full lineup of Revolution Plus magnetic filters.

Kase includes two choice for a front cap. One is a traditional pinch cap while the second is a magnetic cap that smartly snaps into place.

If you are a hood user, the pinch cap is easier to use because it is center pinch. The magnetic cap requires you to free it from the sides, which is harder to do with the lens hood in place.

There is a full set of features outside of the filter options. Here’s a look at everything on this lens:

The Kase 85mm F1.4 has a few features that alternative lenses do not, and only lacks one feature that some others have. The missing feature is an iris lock (Sigma and Sony GM), which allows you to lock into or out of the aperture ring. It would have been useful, too, as there isn’t a particularly firm detent between F16 (minimum aperture) and the A (Automatic) option. In fact, when declicked, there is no resistance here…which could potentially disrupt aperture racks.

What you might notice that we do have from the photo above is a second Fn (Function) button. The Fn1 button works in typical fashion with whatever function you have assigned from the camera. The Fn2 button is interesting, though, as it serves two purposes. The default function is that it will automatically shift to the minimum focus distance (short press). A long press, however, will lock it to your current focus point, allowing you to set a custom focus point that you can instantly return to with a click. That custom point seemed to last if I power cycled the camera on and off, but reset to the minimum focus distance function if I took the lens off the camera.

This is a cool function that is genuinely useful in both settings. I like being able to instantly go to MFD in order to shoot closeups with maximum magnification. It isn’t always obvious where that closest focus distance is.

Speaking of that minimum focus distance. It is a bit closer than the typical 85cm that you typically see on 85mm lenses. You can focus as closely as 70cm, which allows for a higher than usual magnification of nearly 0.14x.

Most of the competing lenses are in the 0.11x range. You can clearly see the Kase advantage in magnification, though this is offset somewhat by the fact that contrast suffers at close distances compared to some competing lenses.

So, while you get higher magnification, it comes at a penalty…at least at F1.4. Stop down a bit and you’ll get higher contrast.

Stopping down isn’t a bad idea anyway; depth of field at 70cm and F1.4 is ridiculously small.

There is an AF | MF switch on the left side, giving you quick control over that function.

There is also a Click | Declick switch on the right side of the lens. In click mode there are definite detents in one-third stop increments, and when the clicks are turned off, you can smoothly move through the aperture range.

I could do reasonably good aperture racks, though I could faintly see some stepping as the aperture changes were made.

The aperture iris has a high 13 blade count, though the aperture iris on my copy wasn’t perfectly centered (as you can see above).

The geometry is a bit odd. In some ways the roundest shapes are achieved wide open, with more deformation coming as the aperture is stopped down. This is opposite of what is typical, and I wonder if the slightly decentered aperture blades are contributing to that. Here’s F1.4, F2, F2.8, and then F4.

The manual focus ring is very nicely executed. It has deep ribs and feels very Sigma. The focus action has nice damping and it focus smoothly. The focus throw is speed dependent and not linear, so doing repeatable focus pulls can be challenging.

Kase has a USB-C port in the lens mount that allows you to do firmware updates right to the lens. I’m a fan of this approach, as it eliminates the need for a separate dock or lens station for firmware updates, and I find the process a little more intuitive than even doing firmware updates through the camera.

Kase is new to the lensmaking business, so there is no track record to point to yet in terms of how consistent they will be in supporting their lenses with firmware.

There is no lens based stabilization, so you will need to rely upon the in-camera stabilization if your camera is so equipped, but that’s true of every other lens in the class.

The Kase 85mm F1.4 in no way feels like a first effort. This feels like a mature, well executed package that manages to bring some innovation to a crowded space. And, at a price of around $738 USD, this lens competes well with lenses like the Sigma for considerably less, and bests the similarly priced Samyang. The fly in the ointment will be the Viltrox Pro AF 85mm F1.4, which is a very strong performer at considerably less money (under $600 USD), though it is a lot bigger and heavier. Kase is standing behind their product, too, offering a 3 year warranty, which is longer than what a lot of other inexpensive brands offer.

Autofocus for Stills

One area where there is a lot of parity amongst the 85mm lenses is when it comes to autofocus. At the top of the heap we have the Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II, which is powered by multiple high thrust XD Linear Motors. The next tier is occupied by the Viltrox Pro AF 85mm F1.4, as it has a more powerful HyperVCM focus motor, which uses newer technology but only has a single focus motor. Pretty much everyone else (including Kase) is relying on an STM focus motor. STM, or Stepping Motor, is a fairly ubiquitous technology among low to mid-tier lenses.

Autofocus speed is on the lower side of these competitors, though fortunately that’s still fast enough for most things. Average is very good in 2025! In my formal tests you can actually see autofocus taking place rather than an instant transition from one subject to another, though focus happens smoothly and linearly without any pulses or hesitations.

Accuracy is very good, however, with all tested subjects. I got consistent and accurate lock on subjects, and focus is fast enough that I didn’t really notice it in normal situations.

Focus speed is fast enough for moderate movement but don’t expect this to be a sports lens. I really liked this moving shot of Ferrari because of his pose and also the extremely shallow depth of field.

Focus will work fine for portrait work, which is arguably the most important application for this lens.

Although is is a first lens for Kase, it certainly matches the more similarly priced competition from Sirui and Samyang. The Viltrox Pro AF is a little faster, but it is also bigger and heavier.

Video AF

Video autofocus follows a similar pattern to what I saw with stills focus, though I would argue that the slower focus speed is less of a negative here. Autofocus pulls are generally confident and without visible steps. Speed is fine, and nothing feels too abrupt.

The biggest challenge is that focus breathing is fairly strong, so you get that “zooming” effect from perspective changes.

My “hand test” where I alternatively block and unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand went well, with smooth and confident transitions from my hand to my face and back, though that focus breathing makes the transitions less cinematic. Sony’s focus breathing compensation does not support any third party lenses, so don’t expect any software assistance.

Typical clips with either static or moving subjects were all fine. I had no issues with video focus.

Kase AF 85mm F1.4 Image Quality

The Kase 85mm F1.4 sports an optical design of 13 elements in 10 groups. This includes 5 ED (extra low dispersion) elements and 2 HR (high refractive index) elements. The result MTF shows a strong center and midframe and a mild dip in the corners at F1.4.

So, on paper, how does this compare with the recent Viltrox Pro AF 85mm F1.4? I like putting the MTF charts onto a grid and putting a line through 80% to show what lands above and below that threshold. My experience is that anything at 30 lp/mm that falls above 80% looks pretty fantastic. On paper, the Viltrox is a bit sharper in the center, about equal, and slightly softer in the corners. We’ll see if that holds up in real world results.

The Viltrox is slightly higher contrast in the center of the frame, both lenses are similar in the mid-frame, but my copy of the Kase underperforms the MTF in the corner, producing noticeably softer results than the Viltrox.

This can’t quite match the Viltrox (or Sigma) in raw sharpness, but is capable of easily besting what I recently saw from from the Sirui Aurora in December 2024.

The Kase is sharper and has much higher contrast. I would definitely choose its performance in general over the Sirui. I would say that it also compares favorably to the slightly more expensive ($699) Samyang lens.

And, as we’ll see in a moment, I think the overall rendering and bokeh from the lens is pretty fantastic.

The Kase 85mm F1.4 has a minor amount of pincushion distortion, which in one area where it definitely bests the Sigma ART lens. The Sigma suffers from a really significant amount of pincushion distortion.

The Sigma needs a -9 to correct all that distortion, while the Kase needs only a -4 (and you could easily leave that uncorrected, as a little pincushion distortion can be flattering). The Kase also has lower vignette (+31 to correct) than either the Viltrox (+48 to correct) or the Sigma (+56 to correct). This is the lowest vignette of the current crop of 85mm lenses on Sony despite having a smaller diameter than some competitors. Here’s a look at the before and after with manual correction.

There is very little of longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) visible on my test chart before and after the plane of focus.

I didn’t really see fringing on shiny textures, either.

There are only minimal issues with lateral style chromatic aberrations found in the contrast transitions near the edge of the frame.

I saw little issues with LaCA in real world images. Overall we have gotten through this section with minimal damage.

So let’s return to focus on resolution. These results are shot on a 61MP Sony a7RV and the crops are shown at roughly 200% magnification level. Here’s a look at the test chart that the crops are taken from.

If we zoom in and look at the 200% crops from the center, mid-frame, and lower right, we discover that sharpness and contrast are excellent in the center and mid-frame, but with a stronger than expected fade into the corners.

A real world shot with a reasonably flat plane of focus shows less of a drop off near the edge of the frame.

It seems like the drop off is more reserved for the far corners, which means that in most images this probably won’t be a factor.

I did feel like contrast was a little lower at closer focus distances and improved at medium distances. Here at close distances contrast at F1.4 looks decent but not exceptional.

Step back a bit and contrast looks a little stronger (also at F1.4)

We are not going to see Sony GM levels of contrast at F1.4, but there’s enough for most people for doing portrait work.

…and tightly crop it into a very different looking image like this:

So what happens when you stop the lens down? Even by F1.8 I see an uptick in contrast, and by F2 the center and midframe look great.

Corners are sharp by F5.6, though not to the levels we see elsewhere in the frame.

That’s on my chart, though. Real world landscapes at F5.6 look great to me even near the edges of the frame.

Diffraction is an unfortunate reality on higher resolution cameras, so you will see a faint softening by F11 and a more obvious softening by the minimum aperture of F16, though frankly results at 100% will still look fine.

Sharpness is very good. I would call it middle of the pack in terms of the current options on Sony in absolute sharpness, but where the Kase 85mm F1.4 really excels is in the balance of sharpness, contrast, and bokeh rendering. The Sony GM II lens is amazing in the sharpness and contrast departments, but produces rather flat rendering to my eye. The Sigma and Viltrox are a little better balanced, but none of them have nicer bokeh than the Kase.

We’ve already seen the worse of the Kase 85mm, namely that the specular highlights aren’t consistently very round, but the overall rendering and handling of the transition zone is excellent. This early morning dew shows a bit of what I’m talking about.

Backgrounds are typically very soft and creamy.

The lens transitions to defocus quickly, so at close focus distances the background melts away almost immediately.

I stopped down to F5.6 and focused about halfway towards the scene, and the bokeh still looks nice and soft.

This shot has a lot of transition zone in it, and I still didn’t find anything to criticize.

Shooting normal shots inside a house shows a nice handling of defocus, even with hard edged items that aren’t really out of focus.

I also liked the color rendering fine overall. Skin tones look nice in the shot above. All of the bright spring colors during my review period looked nice, too.

And, while contrast isn’t necessarily top notch, I did think that there is very nice 3D subject pop at medium distances.

The biggest flare issue that I saw was a bit of light leak problem in the corner. There is only minimal flare related issues otherwise.

There’s a lot to celebrate here, really. Kase has come onto the scene with a lens that is fairly competitive in all areas. Welcome to the club!

You can see more images by checking out the image gallery page here.

Conclusion

The last six months has been a great one for new 85mm F1.4 options on Sony FE. This lens from Kase is perhaps the most unexpected, however, as I’m not sure anyone knew that they were developing this lens. It’s a surprisingly mature effort for a first lens release, and manages to tick all the right boxes. I’m particularly impressed with the clever ways they’ve implemented their filter expertise into this design, making it perhaps the most desirable of the options for those who like to use filters as a part of shaping light and color.

Autofocus is probably the weakest link, but not because it is bad. Focus is quiet and accurate but not as swift as a few competitors. It is perfectly adequate for most people in most focus situations, however, so I’m not concerned.

The optical standout quality to me is the lovely rendering, with soft creamy bokeh. I think the Kase AF 85mm F1.4 FE is a great alternative for those that want a reasonably sharp lens but a less sterile rendering than the 85mm F1.4 GM II. The price of $738 USD is competitive, though less expensive options do exist. I’m not sure if there is a niche for Kase with so many alternatives on the market, but the lens really should carve out some spaced based on its merit…particularly if you want to use filters.

Pros:

Beautiful built lens
Feature rich
Very good weather sealing
Compact and reasonably light
Love the clever filter integrations
USB port for firmware updates
Clean and elegant design
STM focus motor is quiet and accurate
Good sharpness at F1.4 in center and midframe
Great contrast by F2
Higher magnification than competitors
Little distortion
Low vignette
Solid control of fringing
Colors look great
Gorgeous bokeh
Good price to performance ratio
3 year warranty gives some peace of mind

Cons:

Bokeh geometry isn’t amazing
Focus speed isn’t as good as some competitors
Corner sharpness lags a bit
Obvious focus breathing

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GEAR USED:

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DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Dustin Abbott

July 1st, 2025

Kase 85mm F1.4 Build and Handling

Autofocus for Stills

Video AF

Kase AF 85mm F1.4 Image Quality

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB @ Viltrox (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 8% off) | B&H | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Pergear

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Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

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